There’s Too Much At Stake

What is going on at the virtual site of the kolkhoz integration?

The city is unrecognizable. The streets are blocked. Buses don’t go. Everywhere you can see police officers, and some anxious women with the bouquets of governmental flags. However, there seem to be very little happy spectators. A lot of fuss and traffic jams though. The homelike streets remain empty for a long time. There are barriers, kilometer-length fences. From time to time, an occasional flock of cyclists may slip by. And a helicopter, flying non-stop over all this luxury.

Even the declaration of some non-compromise document on the integration which everyone is sick and tired of, previously scheduled on June 21, didn’t happen. The great breakthrough hasn’t happened yet. What capitulation are you talking about? Or, how do you call it? Integration? No, the hearts of the great chieftains and ordinary citizens are now filled with other things..

See, the severe PM Medvedev, who was supposed to declare a harsh verdict of the all towers of the Kremlin to the stubborn ally, became all smiley and murmured something vague. As if some “road map” was not ready yet. So, in order not to darken the games, the triumph of the integration has been postponed till November. What will happen in the end remains a great mystery and big secret.

It seemed that they agreed on this.

However, all this integration news will hardly please anyone. Moreover, the sports fest of the continental level hasn’t met the great expectations. No matter how hard the initiators tried to surprise, astonish and shock the public, the games seem to cause no great agitation. No crowds of fans are storming gyms and sports grounds. The TV cameramen sometimes fail to conceal the absence of interest to many competitions. It’s probably just the bicycle races, when the city center is blocked, gather real crowds and cause great passion.

As for the things happening at the virtual site of the kolkhoz integration, they remain really cunning, sly and extremely dangerous. The postponement of the declaration of the results of all this Kremlin-Drazdy struggle to late autumn has not only failed to bring relief, but escalated the very essence of the conflict. No cheerful words or optimistic forecasts beat down the growing anxiety.

All the events of recent days indicate that the Putin administration will try to turn the tide in its favor. The elections in Ukraine and recent events in Georgia no longer allow sluggish negotiations in the Belarusian direction. Too many miscalculations for Russia. In the game that Putin started here last December, he needs only a win. There’s too much at the stake.

In addition, he is well aware of the current state of the economy of the neighbor. All the techniques applied by Moscow after the ultimatum, gave quite a specific result. The tax maneuver, and the trade war, and the dirty oil, which choked Druzhba, reached the goal. And this is far from the last gifts from the Russian three baskets, in which the eloquent Prime Minister Medvedev at the last meeting with local officials laid out the integration problems.

Sports games will be over soon. Fireworks will go off and everything will be forgotten. Only this sad reality will remain, carefully organized by the Kremlin strategists. Simply put - a trap. Simple. Primitive. But it works.

Only the ruler, in a burst of joy and inspiration could not help but share with the people the stunning news. In vain, ill-wishers slandered that the top officials of the absolute majority of European countries ignored this special holiday. Putin will come to the closing ceremony. And then, when the fire goes out at the stadium, the two of them will head for the distant island of Valaam.

The joy is understandable. However, the idea seems extremely strange. Ordinary people in the street may not know that in the summer of 1950, Stalin exiled there the war invalids disliked by him. Legless, armless. Crippled by fire and iron. Tankers and pilots. Sappers and gunners. All those who overshadowed the joy of the Soviet people who built a new happy life, with the scratching sound of their hastily made wheelchairs, and their very appearance.

Neither the military orders and medals, nor the officers' ranks, or even the titles of Heroes protected anyone from the savagery and arbitrariness of the authorities back then. Officially, their last refuge was a hospital. And in fact, it was a place of lifelong exile. Time erased the pyramids with the soldiers' stars on them long ago. The unknown mounds are lost in the grass. Locals say that some information about the exiles can still be found in the archive. The state has completely repaid its defenders, whose premature death is so despondently grieved over by the odious rulers of the later times.

And they suddenly decided to pray there. To whom, about what?

The country's heritage of the Bolsheviks has not been canceled by anyone. Everything has its term though. And it is quite possible that today there is a completely new fashion in Lubyanka and other relevant areas. Now they will go to pray. No visible obstacles and problems. A pilgrimage to holy sites has long been welcomed and even approved among the governing elites.

However, it has been ordered not to take the party membership cards to the long journey.

Uladzimir Khalip, specially for Charter97.org

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